Just Friday
by strayphoenix
Summary: The best way to kick off an X-Weekend? Magnet attracting, igloo building, cold contracting, love polygon forming, future robot attacking, super-power rivaling, and angel enamoring. TGIF, Betsy! Sequel to 'Just Thursday'
1. Morning Madness

"_**Just Friday"  
**_or  
_**'Polarity'**_

**NOTE**: Only Avalanche and Gambit are living in the mansion though their friends in the Acolytes and Brotherhood are always around to hang out with them and borrow the Danger Room to train. The Professor and Logan got tired of Remy busting their security system every time he snuck in at night to see Rogue and Lance was spending so many nights just crashing on their living room couch that Jean and Kitty forced Scott to swallow his pride and offer him a room. Both Remy's and Lance's main motivation for accepting their own rooms in the mansion was the tangible agony it causes Summers to see their faces every day. And their respective girlfriends of course.

This day-in-the-life takes place one week after "Just Thursday". Thanks to _**Rose Gilmore, slickboy444, koolkame, Agent-G,**_ and _**Kikyo-Pyroana-Sulane **_for wanting more of what should have been a simple, crazy one-shot. Proof that reviewing works (_hint hint). _Hope you found it worth the wait.

* * *

_**Part the First: Morning Madness**_

Betsy Braddock kicked off her second Friday at the Xavier Institute with a migraine the size of Great Britain itself.

"_Urgh, _my _brain_," she groaned.

For some reason, she never expected lessons on controlling her telepathic finesse with the Professor and practice to develop her telekinesis with Jean to be as mentally fatiguing as they were. She certainly didn't expect them to be draining enough to deplete her defenses within a week enough to catch a cold.

Just in time for the weekend too.

A tissue zipped into her hand just as she sat up to sneeze. It felt like she'd just blown her mental shields out her ears: voices flooded into her head and her mind hummed with the morning buzz.

—_can't forget training session tonight with Logan—World Book of Records my butt! I'll just—it can-not wait, I'm yooouuurs—don't know which one I'm most suitable with—wonder where Betsy is—_

Not wanting any of them to find her in such a state, Betsy stumbled out of bed and to the wardrobe she shared (reluctantly) with her roommate, Emma Frost, to find that said roommate had once again removed to little clothes Betsy had brought over with her to make room for her own. Cursing herself once more for requesting a roommate, she grabbed the first shirt and pant combo her hand touched and began making herself halfway respectable.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Betsy clomped down the stairs to the kitchen in Emma's skinny jeans, a crimson tank top she'd borrowed from Jean, and her own black flats. She exaggeratedly stretched out the tight jeans. Her own clothes were still on their way from Maldon.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," Emma greeted with a smirk from the refrigerator as Betsy made her way through the swinging kitchen door, "Nice jeans"

Betsy scowled. "Gee, _thanks_, Ems. Nice _necklace_"

Emma had accompanied her usual skintight outfit with a large flashy red stone necklace surrounded by diamonds on a gold chain. Not even in Princess Amara of Nova Roma's collection had Betsy seen something as gaudy.

But Emma purposefully missed the tone. She winked at Betsy and fingered the necklace in one hand, pulling out orange juice with the other. "Isn't it spectacular, dear? I received it the other day from a secret admirer…who seems to have _quite_ a taste in red gems…"

Betsy sniffled and rolled her eyes. Turning, she noticed for the first time that though the kitchen was busy, it wasn't to its full capacity yet. She could overhear some of the New Mutant's discussing something heatedly, something about the world's fastest animal, near the back of the long kitchen table while others scattered unevenly among the remaining seats. She wasn't last one up.

"Where the bloody hell is everyone?" she asked Ororo by the sink. "Doesn't everyone usually wake with the crack of day around here?"

The weather witch laughed gently. Betsy liked her laugh. "Not when it rains, child," Ororo explained, indicating the falling drizzle outside and the softest roll of thunder. "You'd be surprised how prominent the link is between mutation and sinuses. And no, Bobby, you cannot bribe me with Whole Foods coupons to stop the rain," she added without even turning around as Bobby, Roberto, and Sam came in behind her.

The three boys groaned. "But we've been saving up for _months_!" Bobby whined.

As the weather witch turned to the three newcomers, Dr. McCoy picked up the conversation with Betsy just where Ororo had left off.

"It's a study I've been working on most diligently," Hank informed her over his mug of coffee. It read '_Start the day with a smile—Get it over with'. _"I've actually got it partially proven"

The psychic glared wryly at her physician as she indicated the tissues shoved in her pockets. "Really, you don't—"

"—understand that it's nothing personal, Lance"

The heads in the kitchen turned upwards to Kitty Pryde's voice as she phased herself and her boyfriend down through the ceiling. Betsy started and made to dodge out from under them but the two air-walked absent-mindedly down to the tile without noticing her. The sudden entrances and exits of Kitty and Kurt still had Betsy on a hair pin trigger. Emma hadn't even flinched.

"How am I supposed to not take it personally that you plan on _leaving me_?" Lance asked incredulously, releasing her hand the moment they were clear.

"Heeey now! Who's leaving who?" Tabitha asked, poking her head out from the New Mutants powwow. Betsy could see more than read her eagerness for mansion gossip as the blonde got up and walked around to the couple. She'd learned the hard way that a pencil didn't fall in the Xavier Institute that Tabitha Smith didn't hear about.

Kitty sighed and rolled her eyes. She addressed Tabitha, oblivious to her audience. "Lance is having difficulty accepting the fact that once Joe Jonas realizes he's madly in love with me, he's going to ask me to marry him and Lance is simply going to have to move on"

"Buuuuurn, dude," Tabitha said sympathetically, patting his shoulder as she grabbed the carton of orange juice that Emma was just getting ready to pour and chugged some straight up.

"_Barbarian_," Emma spat as Tabitha handed her back the carton. Betsy smirked to herself and headed towards an available seat while Tabitha shrugged.

Kurt who had been hanging upside down from the TV arm and chatting with his sister checked his watch and choked on his Kitty-free muffin as Betsy passed.

"Oh no!" he announced in alarm, "I almost forgot to remind Forge to shut off his space/time gizmo before the radiation killed us all! Be right back!" he called and then teleported in a cloud of smoke.

Bets threw out a small telekinetic shield to keep the smoke out of her lungs but the mere thought of the brimstone smell evoked another sneeze out of her. Good thing her tissues were handy.

—_igloo the size of a barn? I can top that in my—if I save up maybe I can get seats that _aren't _in the nosebleed—mygodohmygodohmygodohmy—enough that it'll make an atomic explosion look like a firework— look into your heart and you'll find love, love—improve second floor security after sneaking in—godohmygodohmygodoh—_

There was a chorus of 'God bless you's, 'Guesundteitds', and a couple joking cries of 'Swine Flu!' as Betsy blew her nose and plopped down in the closest chair that Amara had pulled out for her to fall in. Bobby, Sam, and Roberto sat on the princess' other side.

Lance glanced around on the other side of the kitchen, trying to tune out his girlfriend's praises for the boy band, and asked no one in particular, "Hey, anyone know where Mr. and Mrs. Beetle-Up-My-Butt are?"

Emma finished pouring her water and shut the refrigerator with some unnecessary force. "They are _not _married"

"…yet" Bobby corrected. Several voices giggled.

"They get called away on an emergency around three last night with Monsieur Logan and his mini-me," Remy supplied, shuffling a deck of green-backed cards.

Rogue elbowed him and her beau corrected himself, not in the least bit irked.

"Mademoiselle _Laura, pardonez moi. _Remy heard 'em say something 'bout a mutant and an earthquake and the _ville_ _des_ _angels_, _homme_"

"What were you doing up at that hour?" Kitty asked, perplexed. "I was unconscious the second I walked out of training yesterday!"

"Yeah, and what's a 'veal duh and gels?'" Sam Guthrie added from the New Mutants tangle.

Remy went to answer but Rogue held an ungloved hand just over his bare knee. Fortunately close enough, Betsy heard the Southerner mutter threateningly, "Answer the _first_ question, Cajun, and you'll be eating through a bendy straw for the next month"

The Cajun replied by plucking the top card off the pile and flashing Rogue the King of Hearts. With a sultry smile, he answered, "Remy don't mind none if Remy's _petite_ be the one feeding him"

Betsy wanted to laugh but her throat felt like sandpaper. After suffering a brief coughing fit (damn her immune system) and missing Rogue's reply, the Brit went about answering Sam's ignored question. She'd had some French speaking friends back in Maldon, England and knew how to maneuver the language well enough to get from point A to point B. More or less.

"He's talking about the City of Angels, if I'm correct," she told the Mansion's other Southerner, "You know, Los Angeles_?_"

Suddenly, the door burst inwards and Jubilee tumbled into the kitchen in a frenzy, looking like she'd come running full tilt. Betsy forced herself to dismiss the notion everyone in her house of residence was trying to give her a heart attack.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! Did you guys _hear_?!"

"Hear?" Jamie asked, "Hear what?"

Betsy hadn't noticed Kurt's return over Jubilee's entrance. When he spoke, though, she saw him perched on the window seat, hand over his heart.

"If it was loud and explosive, I _swear _I just got here"

Jubilee gulped in some much needed oxygen and then raced through her message in only two breaths.

"Logan radioed in saying that they're bringing in a new mutant from California but that Scott got hurt badly saving Jean on their mission and now they should be landing soon and he needs medical assistance from Hank and Jean is so royally pissed at Scott that they weren't speaking to each other on the entire trip back and all signs point that they might _break up!!"_

The only immediate responses to the message were stares and silence as Jubilee's fellow X-Men tried to process the overload of information.

For her part, Betsy didn't completely grasp the reaction. She'd noticed in her time spent with them that Jean and Scott in particular did _more_ than their fair share of bickering. So the newest X-Man had to wonder why _this _out of everything that had happened since her first day there would be considered 'unusual' among her teleporting, telepathic, trained-for-anything teammates.

Then there was a flurry of voices and Betsy was surprised to find her question answered.

"Logan _said _all that?" Kitty gasped.

"Well, I might have paraphrased a bit," Jubilee admitted nonchalantly.

"Well then you must have paraphrased _wrong_!" exclaimed Amara.

"Yeah, this is _Scott _and _Jean_ we're talking about!" Kurt added.

Tabitha clarified. "Those two are, like, unhealthily head over heels for each other!"

"Obsessively and creepily head over heels!"

"I think they qualify as one symbiotic being these days…"

"Already on their way to two point five kids and a dog!"

"Well I—"

"But it's all true!" the messenger insisted, cutting off whatever Emma was going to say. "It came over the Professor's private line and everything!"

"Jubilation…" Ororo asked in a chiding voice as she crossed her arms, "was this supposed to be a secret?"

Betsy looked back to Jubilee as the New Mutant scuffed her toe on the kitchen floor, grinning sheepishly.

"Weeell…" she admitted, "it _was_ until I _kinda_ overheard and began telling everyone…"

But Jubilee was forced into silence as the door swung open once more of its own accord and Jean Grey stalked through it in full uniform and full fury. She didn't say anything, just marched past Emma, Kitty, and Lance to the refrigerator and jerked it open with her mind, but her emerald eyes shone of vengeance and total destruction. Betsy, who had never before witnessed the wrath of Jean, thought she looked frighteningly demented.

"Hank, you in here?"

Logan came through the door, supporting a limping Scott who was glaring at the back of his girlfriend's hair as she shoved her head inside the fridge. As Beast got up to help Logan, Betsy could swear she saw the intensity of his eye beams even through the ruby quartz.

Apparently, Jubilee hadn't _over_ exaggerated.

"Oh my stars and garters! What happened?" Dr. McCoy asked as he went around to support Scott from the other side.

Jean pulled her head out of the fridge, slamming the door shut without touching it, and responded curtly at the same time Scott spat, "_Nothing"_

"There was an accident," Logan supplied, sending annoyed glances to his two eldest students who still weren't facing each other. "I think his leg might be broken, fractured at least"

Betsy clamped her hands over her mouth and nose, feeling another sneeze, and tried to hold it in as not to interrupt the conversation unfolding but to no avail. She sneezed/snorted into her hands, and then winced at the volume of the thoughts in her head.

—SEXIST EGOCENTRIC PRICK!! —WELL EXCUSE ME FOR HAVING A SENSE OF CHIVALRY! NEXT TIME I'LL LET YOU _DIE_! —YOU FREAKING ASSHOLE! WHAT MAKES YOU _THINK_ I NEED TO BE SAVED?! —I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE THE TWO TONS OF STEEL _BEAM_ FALLING TOWARDS YOU THAT YOU WERE DOING _NOTHING_ ABOUT?—RIGHT, BECAUSE I'M A _DEFENSELESS_ PRINCESS WHO NEEDS YOU TO WEAR MY _PANTYHOSE_ INTO BATTLE!!—WELL, IF YOU'RE FISHING FOR AN _APOLOGY_, YOU'RE NOT GETTING IT BY OVERREACTING TO—_**OVERREACTING?!?!**_—

Jean spun around, gleaming murder in her eyes and Betsy cringed. Never tell a mutant, redhead, or girlfriend that they are overreacting. Scott had said so to Jean Grey who fell into all three categories.

The mansion residents watched as everything that wasn't bolted down in the kitchen (and even some stuff that _was_) floated a foot up in the air and Jean screamed aloud, "_**YOU**_ ARE SUCH A DAMNED TIGHT-ASSED BOY SCOUT THE ONLY THING YOU _**DON'T **_FIND TO BE AN OVERREACTION IS THE _**HARD**_-_**ON**_ YOU GET EVERYTIME YOU WALK INTO A TRAINING SESSION!!!"

Betsy and several others had to duck as silverware, three cereal boxes and a bowl of fruit zoomed past them in the direction of Scott's head. Luckily, all the X-Man training was also useful in situations like this and Hank and Logan helped Scott avoid _most_ of the projectiles; a red apple still managed to connect with his skull.

Jean's expression flickered to an evil smile for a moment before she spun on her heel and headed out the second kitchen door, the one that lead to the outside, some students moving further away from her path of vengeance.

The entire mansion shook with the slam, everything (and every_one_) dropped back down to the floor simultaneously, and the kitchen fell into perfect silence for the second time that day.

Finally, Betsy heard the first verbal response come from Emma Frost of all people, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Well I'll be damned. There _is _a God"

Heads swiveled in her direction. Glaring, Betsy had a smart reply to that comment and almost got to say it, but the next voice that spoke up didn't come from inside the kitchen.

"Um, excuse me, Wolf-Marine, was it?"

The attention shifted from Emma, past Scott who was clutching at the side of his head, to the main kitchen door as it swung partly open and a teen girl stepped halfway in wearing an odd combination of board shorts, flip-flops, a baseball cap, and a sweater.

Logan was brushing Rice Krispies out of his hair and merely grunted in response as the new girl glanced back over her shoulder.

"Yeah, could you please tell your daughter to stop staring at me like she's doing? Because it's kinda creeping me out, man"

"He is Project Codename: Weapon X, alias: Logan also known as _Wolverine_ of the X-Men," Laura corrected, entering immediately after the girl and forcing them both fully into the kitchen. "Furthermore, I am not his daughter. I am his 23rd and only successful cloning attempt with the slight alteration of the replication of his X chromosome due to a defect in an unsalvageable Y chromosome. And I was told to watch you"

"_Right_, dude," the new girl said quickly, holding her hands up in surrender and shifting a little closer to Logan, "I promise I'm not gonna go anywhere. Please stop following me"

"It's alright, Laura," Betsy heard Xavier's voice intone as he rolled into the kitchen. "I'll take it from here"

Sighing as she pressed a tissue to her runny nose, Betsy allowed herself to hope that, perhaps, the daily routine of morning madness might almost be _over_.

Her gut feeling laughed at her, uproariously.

The former X-23 glanced at their mentor and looked to Logan once to confirm the order before she sniffed the kitchen air twice.

"Alex hasn't been here yet this morning," she remarked to no one in particular. "I'll go and make sure he didn't have his throat slit while he slept (since the _idiot _sleeps like the dead)" she mumbled the last part, turned, and exited the kitchen past Professor X.

"Because Alex, _of course_, is the mansion's _prime_ target," Betsy had to laugh at Laura's priorities (a small cough/laugh hybrid).

"Hey, a Cutie with a booty like _that_?" Tabitha asked her, grinning, "Are you really _surprised_?"

From beyond the door, Betsy heard Laura very calmly responding, "I know where _you _sleep, Smith"

The only one who _didn't_ take it as an actual threat was Boom Boom herself who made a noncommittal sound, returning to her black toast. The new arrival looked thoroughly creeped out and Betsy wondered if that was _her_ face a week ago at her first encounter with the X-Men.

Dr. McCoy finished picking the last stray Corn Pops out of his fur and greeted, "Good morning, Charles. I thought you were downstairs helping Forge and Sage for the rest of the morning?"

"I was_," _the Professor explained, staring pointedly at Scott, "until a telepathic screaming match made it very difficult for me to concentrate"

The kitchen residents followed his gaze but for once, the X-Men leader didn't have a clear-cut reply.

"…she's being…_difficult,_" he muttered, looking at the floor and still holding the side of his head.

"For the record, I agree" Emma stated, gracefully pulling herself up to sit on the kitchen counter.

"No one's _taking_ record," Rogue mumbled. Betsy nodded in agreement, rolling her eyes and grabbing a muffin that had fallen within her reach on the table. Her original breakfast choice of Frosted Flakes had been chucked at Scott's head.

As Betsy chewed, the professor turned to their guest. "And this is the mutant you rescued?"

The new student relaxed her posture, finally convinced Laura was really gone. She hung a thumb in the waistband of her shorts and whipped off the baseball cap to shake the professor's hand, replying with more confidence, "You bet! Lorna Dane from LA. Freshly mutantized. What's hanging?"

To Betsy's surprise, the wavy hair that tumbled down from the teen's head was a startling jade green. A couple students whistled in admiration as Betsy glanced up at her own lavender bangs. _Becuase we don't stand out _nearly _enough, _she thought with a sigh.

"From what we can tell, she's a telekinetic, like Red and Violet," Logan explained as he shifted all of Scott's weight to Hank so that the doctor could get him down to the medlab for a checkup. Betsy cringed at her Wolverine-chosen nickname but didn't clarify or complain. At least it couldn't be confused for anyone else's and it still beat her _Tabitha _chosen nickname. She hoped Lorna wouldn't get stuck with something like Booger.

From Hank's arms, Scott added, "Her manifestation triggered an earthquake that totaled a dozen cars and leveled an under construction building. Henceforth…" He indicated to his position in the blue doctor's arms.

The Cali girl shifted uneasily, "Yeah, _really _sorry about that…typical _telekimesis_ problems and everything…"

"Don't worry, Miss Dane," Professor Xavier soothed, placing a hand on her shoulder, "everything will be alright"

Lorna smiled. Betsy sat up as the Professor continued in his 'normal morning business' voice (which sounded to Betsy very much like an anchorman reporting all sorts of oddities with a straight face) and Scott was carried out of the kitchen grumbling something about ripe fruit.

"Now," the professor continued, "I'll send Kurt for your things so you can start settling into your room. You're excused from school today as is Betsy—"

On Xavier's cue, Kurt had teleported out of the room from behind Betsy. The brimstone forced her to sneeze and she nearly choked on her muffin.

—_gonna chew him out so badly he's gonna wish—doesn't have the slightest idea what it means to do what I—start off lying! How long do you expect—way too long checking my tongue in the mirror—madly in love—remix to ignition! —maybe let her rest until she's—_

"Bless you. As well as Scott and Jean to catch up on sleep—"

"And patience," Logan growled, discovering a grape in the back of his jacket.

"—and Sage and Forge who were up all night with their latest project," Xavier finished.

"Besides, Tessa short-circuits in the rain," Sam added with a grin.

"Which is kinda hilarious," Roberto seconded, also smiling.

Betsy coughed, blew her nose and damned her luck as Bobby Drake stood up from the table on Amara's other side. He tossed his hair and said ever so politely, "Excuse me, Professor Xavier, but I would like to request permission to stay as well"

The Professor quirked an eyebrow and all of the New Mutants turned to stare at Bobby in confusion.

"Is that so?" Xavier responded, humored, "On what grounds?"

"On the grounds of Ms. Dane being in need of a tour guide, _of_ _course,_" he replied as if it were obvious. "After all—_AHH!"_

The nearby mutants jumped in surprise as Bobby bolted to his feet, hopping on one foot and clutching at his left sneaker which had caught on fire. Amara calmly took a sip of her orange juice, though Betsy noticed her brief smirk at Bobby's yelling. Lorna looked appalled and more surprised than anyone.

"Nice try, Robert," the Professor intoned. The twinkle in his eyes gave away his humor as Bobby finally managed to ice out the fire and plopped back down on his chair to numerous snickers. "I was, however, going to have _Betsy_ show our newest possible student around"

Swallowing hard on her muffin, Betsy glanced up at the professor in surprise as all heads swiveled in her direction. "_Me?_"

"It should give you something to save you from the _boredom_ around here while you're stuck at home sick," he clarified, smiling at his own use of the word.

"But Professor!" Kitty whined, hand shooting up in the air like a prized student, "_I _always get to tour the new students!"

"Not that I'm not _grateful_, Professor," Betsy began, "but Kitty's right and, uh, I think it would be easier if a more _senior_ student would do the tour…"

"Well, I _only_ have a chemistry lab today," Emma informed the Professor as she inspected her nails, "which I _hardly _need to be present for. I'll stay and assist Betsy in giving Ms. Dane a tour"

Professor Xavier threw Emma a curious look and therefore missed Betsy shooting him an '_Are you out of your mind?!' _look.

But finally, he said, "Very well, then. _Both _of you young ladies will give Ms. Dane her tour. Now, off to school with the rest of you. You know how traffic is _without_ rain at this hour

"Oh, and Bobby, Tabitha, Rahne, Jamie, Sam, Roberto, Amara," the clustered New Mutants glanced up at their mentor, "You are free to attempt what you wish today _as long as_ no one is hurt and there is minimum property damage. Deal?"

The seven mutants grinned eagerly and exchanged high fives. Betsy was further intrigued by what the younger mutants would be up to but had no time to ask as the kitchen began clearing out rather quickly.

Suddenly, Kurt teleported back into the room right beside Betsy who jumped a foot in the air and clutched over her nose immediately.

"Bloody hell!" she snorted. "Can't you shout a _warning _or something?!"

"Listen," he whispered urgently as students headed out on either side of them, "we need you to keep an eye on Emma and keep her away from Scott"

Jamie bumped her and multiplied on his way out, apologizing six times over. Betsy replied in confusion, "What? Emma _what_? Who's '_we'_?"

Kitty phased through Rahne and two Jamies to Betsy's other side. "Kurt and I have spent _way_ too much of our matchmaking skills and genius level brain power on getting Scott and Jean together to have them break up over something as stupid as chivalry!"

"Seriously!" Kurt chimed.

"So we need you to make sure Emma doesn't, like, take advantage of the situation and make a move on Scott while he and Jean aren't talking. Got it?"

"What?! No! _What?!_"

"Keep the lioness _off_ the wounded baby zebra until we get back. Kay?"

"Great!"

The duo teleported out immediately, leaving Betsy with no chance to respond. She'd kept her hands over her nose to prevent any more of her apocalyptic sneezing. So when the smoke finally cleared, all who remained in the kitchen were Emma filing her nails on the counter, Lorna near the doorway who'd narrowly missed the exit stampede, and a miserably sick Betsy still in her chair at the table.

Catching the drift of the new student's thoughts, she released her nose and turned to Lorna, answering with a sigh, "Yes, that actually _does_ happen a lot around here"

Lorna chuckled a little nervously as Emma assured her, "Trust me, darling. After a few weeks, you won't notice the lack of privacy or even register the smell of brimstone"

_Then I must have quite some weeks to go_, Betsy mused to herself as she visibly shot Emma a wary look.

She then got up and went over to introduce herself to the newest possible X-Man.

"Hi, I'm Betsy from England," Betsy re-introduced herself, shaking hands with a smile. Lorna shook the hand tensely, still shell-shocked. "Digging the hair, by the way," she added in an attempt to lighten the mood and change the subject. The girl _did _have stunning jade hair.

"You should talk," Lorna laughed lightly, reaching out to flick one of the ends of Betsy's lavender mop. She seemed to relax a little bit more. "Yours come with the mutant power too?"

Psylocke endured the pain in her throat that came with laughing for a moment. "Some days I wish. It came in a bottle"

"You wouldn't believe all the _awful_ things those dyes will do to your hair," Emma commented, lightly jumping down from the counter.

"Or your _brain_," Betsy added, knowing full well that Emma's golden locks were more thanks to L'Oreal than to her genes. She'd seen the shampoo herself.

"C'mon," she told the younger girl, placing an arm on her back and leading her out of the kitchen, "let's get started with your tour"

* * *

**A/N**: What I really should be saying is, TGFWATX (Thank God for Wolverine and the X-Men)! It got me back in my mutant groove :). So I've returned to what I've begun lovingly calling my 'X-Men: Devolution' universe (two years post-series with a couple of new evolution-ized members such as Sage, Emma Frost, and most notably Psylocke) and a few more ideas have been coming to me. We'll see if any of them survive the tempests in my brain and are deemed worthy to post.

**_NEXT:  
_**Tessa then proceeded to smack Forge across the face and grab the front of his shirt. "THAT ENABLER COULD WIPE OUR PLANE OF REALITY FROM EXISTANCE, YOU MORON!! WHERE DID YOU _PUT_ _IT_?!?!"


	2. Tea Time Trials and Tribulations

**Important Author's Note**: Okay, so chapter 3 was turning out super-huge so I cut off the last third of chapter two and added to the beginning third of chapter three to make another chapter which means we'll now have four chapters instead of the intended three. Got that? Capiche? Si? Excellent. ONWARDS!

Disclaimer: All characters are recycled from the Marvel Universe. I only reinvent them :)

**

* * *

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Part the Second: Tea Time Trials and Tribulations

Emma clicked her tongue as she peeked into the room that had been assigned to Lorna at the end of the hall in the girl's dormitories.

"Why is she clicking?" Lorna whispered to Betsy, "What deems clicking?"

Betsy placed Lorna's suitcases back on the floor and squeezed past Emma to look at the room and bit her lip. The ceiling was falling in from water damage, the bed beneath it was soaked and sagging and the carpet smelled of mildew which tickled Betsy's sensitive nose.

"Yeah, there's _got_ to be some mistake," Betsy agreed to Emma's clicking, "There's no _way_ you're going to be able to stay—_stay—"_

Another sneeze ripped out of the psychic's aching throat.

—_go cannonball, I'll be there in no—didn't mean anything _rude_ by calling her—_oh_ so _totally_ going to be late for first period for the fourth—hairline fracture in the femur so we'll need—you done _done_ me and you bet I _felt_—subbasements one through four are clear—_hope_ I'm not making a bad impression—check on Scott when the first opportunity—_

"Bless you," Emma and Lorna said at more or less the same time. Betsy nodded her thanks and blew her nose, her head pounding, as Lorna leaned her surfboard against the wall.

She peeked inside under Emma's arm, squeezing between Betsy's torso and the doorframe. "_Eeeeewww. _Are_ all_ the rooms like this?" she asked, pinching her nose.

"Just the ones located under _Iceman's _room," Emma clarified, glaring up at the dripping ceiling. "We have to relocate him every few months to clean up his messes"

Unsure of the mansion's rooming capacity, Betsy turned to Emma, "So where is she going to stay, then?"

"No idea," Emma replied as she turned to diamond and picked up three of Lorna's heaviest bags, "but there's a storage room at the end of the hall on the boys floor where we can keep her things until we sort this out"

_Show off_, Betsy shot at Emma telepathically as she grabbed a rolling duffel bag in one hand and lifted two more suitcases with her telekinesis. Her muscles were way too achy and sore to lift much else.

_Jealous, _Emma replied simply as Lorna gawked at Emma's diamond skin and the two suitcases now glowing purple at Betsy's sides.

"What?" Emma asked as she noticed Lorna's expression.

"You guys can just, '_poof!' _use your _powers_ like that?" she asked in surprise.

"_Yeah_…" Betsy replied, shrugging at Lorna's tone, "it's _kind of_ the perks of being a mutant"

"But I thought you only used them to, you know, save the world and fight evil and stuff"

"And move furniture, and fix light bulbs, and cut down trees and save on phone bills," Emma added, shifting one of the bags to pick up a fourth. Betsy glared. Now she was just _bragging. _"Xavier teaches us to be comfortable with our powers and use them as _much _as humanly possible"

Betsy glanced over at the new mutant and, feeling like it was something a mentor _should_ do (and Jean _had_ done on a few occasions), she placed one of the floating bags down and said, "Here, why don't _you _try, Lorna?"

Lorna picked up her surfboard and tucked it under her arm securely with a nervous glance at the suitcase. "I don't know…last time I used my powers was kind of _disastrous…"_

"Lorna, _believe_ me when I say the mansion can _take _it," was Emma's casual response as Lorna made a face, turning towards the fabric suitcase.

Betsy backed against the opposite wall to give Lorna more space. "Okay, now just _concentrate _on where you want the bag to—_"_

But before Betsy could even finish her instructions, Alex Summers turned the corner and came barreling down the hallway and almost right into the three girls.

"Whoops!" he exclaimed as he reacted just in time to side-step Emma and barely duck under the surfboard blocking the other half of the hallway, only to end up tripping on the suitcase in the middle and falling on his face.

Betsy had pressed herself up against the wall as a reflex and only eased off once she realized the biggest threat was her own paranoia. Groaning, she lifted Lorna's suitcase back up and out of the way as Alex sprung back on his feet and dusted himself off.

"Yeah, I'm cool. Totally fine. No worries," he assured them with false bravado, trying to play it off as if he _hadn't _just totally eaten it in front of three beautiful women. "Guess it's true you can't escape a traffic jam _anywhere_ in this city"

Lorna giggled and applauded lightly as Emma commented dryly, "Happy to see we're still living up to our codenames, _Havok_"

He turned back to the three of them, replying, "Well at least some of us _have_ code—"

But he stopped himself as he caught sight of Lorna, who grinned and waved at him with the one hand that wasn't supporting her surfboard. "Hi. I'm Lorna. Dane. New student. Nice _wipeout_"

"Alex. Masters. Summers now, actually," he corrected, not really paying attention. His eyes were glued to Lorna's surf board. "Hey, that wouldn't happen to be a Local Motion board, would it?"

Lorna propped the surfboard up for him to see. Betsy hadn't really paid attention to it (surfing wasn't really her thing) but she did have to admit it had a very cool and personalized design. It was a basic white board but with a double green stripe down the middle and play/pause symbol, both the same shade as Lorna's hair. It couldn't have been _anyone_ else's board.

"You better believe it," she replied, smiling broadly, "Tri Quad, straight from Down Under. Birthday, Christmas, _and_ graduation present"

Alex stared at it for a few more seconds before finally looking Lorna in the face and, unexpectedly, dropping to one knee and pleading, "Marry me. _Right_ now"

Emma rolled her eyes as Betsy, who had _no_ idea what Lorna had just said to warrant a proposal, tried to keep the grin off her face at Lorna's expression: though laughing good-heartedly, her face had flushed scarlet, standing out poignantly against the green hair.

"_Flattered_ as I am," she said, curtseying slightly, "it hasn't been doing me much good with the swells we're getting out in LA this time of year"

"A Cali girl, huh?" he replied, picking himself up off the floor, "Well, you should try heading to Hawaii this summer for the Women's Pipeline Semi-Pro. Try your luck with some of the seven and eight footers we get out there. Heads up, though. It's _not_ for the faint of heart," he added, a tease trailing along with his words.

Lorna scoffed, leaning casually on her surfboard. "Please, _bra_, I can do a pipeline in my _sleep_"

"I can do a pipeline too"

Laura had appeared as suddenly as if she had teleported in the room. Such was the fact that Betsy, Alex and Lorna all jumped at the sudden sound of her voice. Emma, once again, seemed to be _immune._

Lorna looked X-23 up and down nervously, whatever charm she'd summoned for Alex crawling back into its hiding place, as Laura came to stand next to Alex and deliberately intertwined their hands. Alex looked a little sheepish at being caught flirting with another girl in the presence of his girlfriend.

Betsy could suddenly cut the tension with a knife and wished, not for the first time, that she were somewhere _else_.

"You, _ah_, you surf?" Lorna asked, trying to sound serious but looking as if she seriously didn't believe it for a second.

"No. I can _kill_ you five different ways in the constrictions of an underground pipeline," X-23 replied, glaring at Lorna and squeezing Alex's hand with a bit more force than was necessary—

_Crack!_

Alex gave a shout as he whipped his broken hand out of Laura's grip. Betsy winced and stifled a gasp—the sound was awful. Laura, on the other hand, only appeared vaguely surprised as her boyfriend clutched at his wounded hand, jumping a little in pain.

She addressed him calmly as she grabbed his arm and lead him towards the stairs, still eyeing Lorna out of the corner of her eye, "C'mon Alex, we should get you to the hospital wing"

Laura looked to Emma once and added, "Your necklace looks like it's trying to eat your _breast_"

At the words 'hospital wing', Betsy remembered that giving Lorna the tour wasn't her _only_ job that day. She _apparently_ also had a relationship to maintain besides.

"Hey, um, could you two save us the trouble and check on Scott while you're down there?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Betsy caught Emma fingering her giant red gem necklace again and shooting her a glare to melt steel as Alex glanced over his shoulder and asked, "What—_ow!_—what happened to Scott?"

X-23 gave him a shove. "Moot point. _Move"_

As the two younger students left, Betsy turned back to her 'tour group' just as Emma threw her arm around Lorna who was watching the retreating figures of Alex and X-23 with something that looked a little less like confusion and a little more like envy.

"Trust me, girl. It's not even _worth_ it," Emma informed their guest. "The Summers brothers have this thing about _fidelity,_" she continued, emphasizing the last word as if it disgusted her. Betsy tried not to show exactly how humorous she found the comment as she turned to pick up the last of Lorna's bags with her telekinesis and began heading for the storage closet.

"_Still_," Betsy heard Emma mutter, "nice _try_"

This time Betsy couldn't help but laugh which only made Lorna give her a suspicious look. She sobered up as fast as she could, figuring that she'd have to explain the Summers/Grey/Frost love triangle to their new student _eventually_, preferably when the 'Frost' portion was elsewhere.

And preferably before the Summers/X-23/Dane love triangle gained _too_ much popularity.

* * *

After shoving Lorna's things into the already jam-packed storage closet (it took all three of them to finally get the door to close again) and giving her the boring (in Betsy's opinion) upstairs tour, the three women spent an awkward trip down to the sub-basement in one of the mansion's elevators.

"So…" Lorna hedged, glancing over at Betsy's hair again, "I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you're 'Violet'"

Emma answered in Betsy's place, never turning her gaze from the elevator door. "Logan gives everyone his own set of _nicknames,_ separate from our codenames. I believe it's supposed to be a form of _endearment_"

"Oh," Lorna replied, looking to Emma now. "What's he call _you_?"

"'Barbie'," Betsy supplied happily, also not turning her gaze away from the elevator door.

Betsy could have sworn she saw Emma's skin prickle out of the corner of her eye. "His choices aren't always so…fitting"

"But sometimes they _are,_" Betsy countered, trying to keep the grin off her face.

Emma shot Betsy a warning look. Betsy decided to lay low on the cracks for a while as she was already on thin ice with her roommate for the Scott deviation earlier. It was going to be difficult to complete the tour if Emma was trying to _kill_ her.

"So you're the other telekimetic?" Lorna asked, facing Betsy now.

"'Telekinetic'," Betsy corrected, looking at Lorna now, "and yeah. Jean —the red head who came in with you— and I are the only two"

The Cali girl looked confused. "I thought she was telepathic?"

"That _too_," Emma supplied, "So am I, so is the Professor and so is Elizabeth"

"Telepaths, psis in general, usually come with secondary mutations," Betsy explained. Then she added, in hopes of being reassuring, "We're all eagerly waiting to see what _yours_ will be"

"_Oh_," Lorna replied, looking sheepish and nervous, "Right. _Sure_"

She turned from Betsy to Emma and continued the conversation as if Betsy's comment hadn't even been said. "So, uh, what's yours? Exactly?"

"Well," Emma began, sending Betsy another of her annoyed looks, "if you ask some of my _teammates_, they'd tell you it's being a mega-cow"

Betsy held her hands up in surrender, palms out. "Hey, _you_ said it, not me"

"But as you _saw_," she continued, "I can turn my skin into indestructible diamond. _Nifty_ when Colossus is away in Russia"

"And you can you do it anytime? Like now?"

"If you want us to plummet straight into the fourth subbasement then _yes," _Emma replied, to which Lorna shook her head quickly 'no'.

"We're not really the experts on this," Betsy admitted, just as the elevator reached the danger room floor. "Doctor McCoy's the one you want to talk to if you want more answers"

"He's the large blue ape who carried the handsome young man in the sunglasses from the kitchen," Emma clarified. "He can give you more information, if you're still curious"

As Emma and Lorna stepped out from the elevator, the rush of air from the opening doors caused Betsy to sneeze again.

"_ATCHOO_!" —_won't hes-i-tate no more, _no_—RIP EACH AND EVERY VERTABRAE OUT WITH MY TEETH—developing a secondary! I thought one was—_told_ Ms. Psycho Perfect not to give Logan the—LOST THE DAMN THING! OUT OF EVERYTHING HE'S—_dead_, completely and _utterlydead_ if she doesn't stop—_

"_Okay_," Betsy commented as she wiped her nose again and followed the two other mutants to the door of the Danger Room, "_that_ was weird_-er _than usual"

No sooner had Emma finished punching in her access code and been greeted by the Danger Room systems, that the doors opened to the scene of Sage nearly drowning Forge in a bucket of water in the middle of the Danger Room floor.

"_Sage_?!" Betsy called out, running over to the pair and forcing Sage to pull Forge's face out of the bucket, "Tess, what in bloody hell are you _doing_?!"

"I'M SOBER! I'M SOBER! I'M SOBER!" Forge yelled, coughing up water as Sage released him.

"Have you gone _crazy,_ girl?" Betsy asked, glancing down into the miniscule bucket of ice water as Emma jogged over with a frightened Lorna.

"No, not _really_, no," Sage replied sardonically, throwing Forge into a chair and turning to Betsy. "_Forge_ here just thought it was a _great_ idea to get wasted last night and can't remember _if _he invented a remote for our space/time enabler or _where _he _put _the space/time enabler itself. _But_," she added with the choleric tone of the hysterical as she tossed a 6" by 6" box in Betsy's direction which she caught with her TK, "he _did _build _this_ amazing contraption though he can't _remember_ what it _DOES!_"

Tessa then proceeded to smack her boyfriend across the face and grab the front of his shirt to yell, "THAT ENABLER COULD WIPE OUR PLANE OF REALITY FROM EXISTANCE, YOU MORON!! WHERE DID YOU _PUT_ _IT_?!?!"

"I told you!_"_ Forge spat as he gulped for air, his eyes wide in terror, "I couldn't remember my _name_ after the last round!_"_

"Tessa, think _logically_, now," Emma said, intervening at last and coming to place a hand on Sage's shoulder as she dropped Forge again. "_Drowning_ Forge isn't going to help us find this enabler, nor is it going to _solve_ anything_._ If it did, we would've had _many_ more corpses by now"

Lorna came forward to stand by Betsy's side and whispered in fear, "Could it _really_ wipe our plane of existence from reality?"

"No," Tessa corrected, having overheard her. She took a deep breath and pinched her brow. "It could wipe our plane of _reality _from _existence_. Argh! I'm just so mad I could—!"

She paused and turned to Lorna. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen. Uh, why?"

Sage then proceeded to shout a string of curses and profanities in fifteen of the languages available in her mental database. For her part, Betsy was so impressed, she applauded.

"Got that out of your system?" Emma asked, reassuringly.

"No," Sage moaned. "Those were only _half_ of the languages I'm fluent in"

"Even so, baby," Forge commented as he sat up in his chair, "that's pretty impre—_"_

"DON'T TURN ME INTO A _TAXIDERMIST_, FORGE!!" his girlfriend shot back. "_REMEMBER_ OR _SHUT UP!!_"

"Shouldn't we be sounding an alarm of some kind?" Lorna asked, panic seeping into her voice. "Letting the government know about this or…or _something_?"

Tessa and Emma both rolled their eyes even as Betsy was considering the same question. "Let's not be _hasty_, young grasshopper," Emma said as she went around to Forge's chair where he was hacking up some more water. "I'll just check Forge's mind to see where he put it"

"'_Hasty'?"_ Lorna asked Betsy in shock as Emma closed her eyes to concentrate. Betsy could do no more than shrug and pretend to be _very_ interested in the odd box she had been tossed. There was, after all, no fair argument against _lunacy_.

"You're not going to get anything," Sage said impatiently tapping her foot. "Xavier was down here with us all morning trying to find the same information"

Emma sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're right," she replied at last, opening her eyes. "His memory blacks out four drinks in"

Tessa kicked the closest thing to her, Forge's chair leg. "Argh!"

"_Now _do we alert the proper authorities?" Betsy asked for both her and Lorna's sake.

"And tell them _what_, Elizabeth? 'Police, a mutant inventor invented and then misplaced a space/time gizmo that might destroy everything as we know it'?" she mimicked, coming back around to stand with Tessa. "You should _know_ better by now. We're lucky if they listen past 'mutant'"

Nervously, Lorna glanced among the gathered women. "So what _are_ we going to do?"

For his part, Forge looked equally shocked. "Really? _Only _four drinks in? I thought I—"

Sage grabbed the remaining water and dumped it on Forge, cutting him off.

"_I'M SOBER_!"

Betsy struggled to keep a straight face as Sage tossed the bucket off into a corner without even looking back at the dripping Forge.

"Go check upstairs," she instructed. "If we're lucky (which we're not) I might be able to track it from—"

Her words were interrupted by a deafening, earth-rattling explosion that shook the Danger Room to its core. Losing her balance, Betsy pushed her TK out as far as she could to balance herself upright against the closest wall. Lorna stumbled but caught onto Betsy. Forge fell out of his chair and both Sage and Emma braced themselves against the now empty seat.

When the tremors subsided, the six mutants glanced at one another.

"So, uh, what does the sound of existence wiping out sound like?"

* * *

Betsy was almost completely out of breath as she emerged from the stairs leading to all the subbasements. The explosion had knocked out the elevator so what was a leisure one minute trip down took them a full five minutes of climbing to get back to ground level.

She moved out of the way so that Sage and Emma (already in diamond form) could pass her, running towards the living room commotion. As she passed, Lorna stopped and placed a hand on Betsy's shoulder.

"Hey, are you—?"

"I'm fine," Betsy replied immediately. "Just a little…out of breath…nose is stuffed…stuffed up…go with…Emma and Tess…be right—"

Another explosion shook the house, this time followed by a crumbling noise and several shouts. Lorna helped Betsy keep her balance and heard Forge cry out from the stairs behind them as he lost his balance and fell down a flight.

The second she found her feet again, Betsy had almost enough breath and adrenaline to feel ready to kick some butt. Almost.

Today was _not_ her day.

"Come on!" she instructed to Lorna, grabbing the younger mutant's hand and jogging towards the living room. "Welcome to the crash course for _Life as an X-Man 101. _Hope you survive long enough for 201," Betsy added in a mutter that wasn't as low as she thought it was.

Lorna's face paled. "_Survive_?" she squeaked.

**End Part Two**

* * *

Less Important Author's Note: If you're _deathly _curious as to whose thoughts were whose during Betsy's sneezes, send a PM and I'll send you the list since I already had to write it up for koolkame :P

**_NEXT:_**

"_Surrender, mutants,"_ the robot intoned, quickly recovering from the hit._ "We know you are hiding it"_

"This place has more secrets than you have shades of _pink_," Sage informed the robot, dodging another of its lasers. "You're going to have to be _way_ more specific than _that_"


	3. Afternoon Apocalypse

_**IMPORTANT NOTE: **_Okay, so this has LITERALLY been sitting on my hard drive for a full 365 days. I'd been trying a new writing system where I didn't post the first chapter until I had at least three-fourths of the next one done but as I was writing 'Friday', I got involved in the Total Drama fandom and the awesome collaboration story I'm writing with **Contemperina **over on her page. And so Chapter 4 was put on the backburner. _Waaaay _back. Add to the fact that I started working on an original X-Men related comic script that is somewhat similar to 'Friday', and I just never got back around to it.

The only reason you're reading it now is thanks to the dedicated Ms. **Rose Gilmore **who kindly dropped me a reminder to work on this story every few months and the equally awesome **koolkame **who was kind enough to proof read this for me way back in the early months of last year (and dislikes my comma frequency xD). Thank the two of them for this update :D

As for when you can expect Chapter 4, I honestly don't have it on my schedule for any time soon since I have so many Total Drama stories in the works and X-Men is presently one of my _'inactive fandoms'. _But rest assured, I will eventually get back around to this story and you will see its conclusion in chapter 4. Once you do, you will understand _why _it has taken 365+ days to finish tying up all 15 running plot lines and topping it with a cherry :D

And so, finally, the long awaited part 3 of 'Just Friday'! Rose and Kams, this is for you. Merry Christmas!

**

* * *

**

Part the Third: Afternoon Apocalypse

When the two girls rounded the corner to the living room, Betsy wasn't sure just _what_ she was expecting (after Forge's cockroach thing, _anything_ went). But the sight she came across still threw her for a loop.

Jean, Emma, Sage and X-23 were in numerous strategically beneficial positions, clawing, blasting, and punching what appeared to be a giant floating pink robot who was attempting to blast them with lasers from its palms. Half the living room was destroyed or burnt and one of the outside walls finished crumbling as they arrived.

Quick thinking, middle-of-the-action strategizing was not yet as second nature to Betsy as it was to Scott and several of the other X-Men. As Betsy tried to process the information, Lorna stared at the scene in utter disbelief.

"Um, I'm not going crazy, right? It's…_pink_"

At Lorna's comment, the robot turned its attention towards her and Betsy. It outstretched its palm.

_Crap._

Betsy shoved Lorna out of the way and formed the strongest shield she could muster. The beam reflected off of it and hit the chandelier above the melee. It gave an ominous creak before snapping and coming down on all of them.

Jean grabbed the falling chandelier before it hit any of them and hurled it like a softball at the intruding robot, her face a mask of pure determination. Betsy let down her shield and cringed as the thing hit the robot. She was going to take a shot in the dark and guess that Jean still had some steam to blow off.

"_Surrender, mutants,"_ the robot intoned, quickly recovering from the hit._ "We know you are hiding it"_

"This place has more secrets than you have shades of _pink_," Sage informed the robot, dodging another of its lasers. "You're going to have to be _way_ more specific than _that_"

Trying to concentrate on the matter at hand was becoming exceedingly difficult for Betsy when her head felt like a balloon from congestion and the dust that the falling chandelier kicked up was just enough to make her sneeze amidst the chaos.

—_are there _always _giant robots trying to kill_—_totally_ useless _with this leg_—_who_ are _these_—_make_ _it_ _before it_ all _goes to_ _hell_—_weaker points are joints, eyes, neck, power outputs_—never_ going_ _to_ _make_ _it_ _to_ _retirement_—_I_ knew _that_ _enabler_ _was_ _no_ _good_—

Betsy looked up just as Pinky was powering up another blast aimed at Lorna, the surfer girl was staring at it with a look very much like a deer caught in headlights.

Before Betsy could shout out a warning an optic blast fired out from behind the robot, almost decapitating it.

"Wow," Emma praised as the robot faltered and lost some altitude. "Nice _shot_, Scott"

"Shot of what?" a voice asked from behind them.

The four women turned to see a wheelchair bound Scott, a bandaged Alex, Hank, Logan, and the Professor emerging from one of the backup lifts. Scott looked at them all confused, "I just got here"

Betsy turned back to the robot whose injury was healing even as she spoke. "Then who…?"

Another force beam interrupted her question but missed the Sentinel entirely and was followed by a girl's voice shouting, "Dammit, Cable! I've told you to calculate a foot to your _left_ when you aim_, _you idiot!"

To everyone's surprise a teenage girl with short, spiky red hair wearing jeans and an army print tank top swooped in carrying a blonde haired boy around the same age by under in his arms, one of which looked mechanical. She dropped him just as she crossed the threshold through the large crater in the wall.

A stunned Betsy watched as he expertly rolled and recovered only to shout up at the girl, "Okay, you might have _thought_ you told me that, _Marvel Girl, _but I've _never_ heard you say that _ever!_"

The newcomers now had the robot's full attention and, honestly, Betsy wasn't complaining as it gave her time to sneak over to Lorna. "You okay?" she murmured and Lorna shook her head frantically. The Brit glanced back at her teammates who were all watching the situation unfolding with expressions of uncertainty or confusion.

"_You mutants shall not prevail. Surrender,"_ the robot commanded as it turned to aim a glowing palm at the new arrivals.

"It's common _sense!" _the girl countered as she rolled her eyes and made an idle sweeping gesture towards the pink robot which cut a deep gash across its torso area. She returned her attention to the boy on the ground, saying in an exasperated tone, "I shouldn't _have_ to tell you that! If you aim with only _one _eye, you compromise your stereovision and—"

Looking annoyed, the boy then closed his right eye and shot another optic blast from his left. To everyone's surprise, including his own, it hit the robot dead on and neatly decapitated it. Lorna finally came to her senses and she and Betsy scrambled out of the way of the robotic head as it landed with a _thunk_ in the few feet between them.

"Oh, hey, that actually _worked…_" the boy commented, looking pleasantly surprised. Then he narrowed his eyes and glared up at his partner, "Why are you _always _freaking_ right?"_

She shrugged with a smirk. "Them's the breaks, bro. Here we go—"

With a look of concentration and glowing yellow eyes, the redhead made a motion as if to part the Red Sea and ripped a glowing power center from the sentinel's inside and pulverized it into a million little pieces which shot out all over the place. Tessa ducked behind a diamond Emma and Betsy tried for a smaller, weaker shield to cover herself and Lorna while the others threw their hands up to cover their faces from the shrapnel.

"And there _he_ goes," the boy finished happily, brushing off his hands as the sentinel's now empty shell dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Betsy stared at the two of them as she put down her shield. More than half the living room had been demolished by a _pink_ _robot_ that their fighting forces had barely managed to hold off and two complete strangers had just taken it apart in under thirty seconds. She wasn't completely convinced her illness hadn't started causing her to hallucinate. "Um…"

The girl levitated herself down to the ground, none the worse for wear, as the boy easily leapt over the useless sentinel shell and bowed low to the gathered X-Men. "Thank you, thank you. No need for applause!"

Betsy helped Lorna up without taking her eyes off the strangers and went over to stand with the other gathered X-Men who hadn't completely let down their guard. She gave the decapitated sentinel head a _wide_ berth.

"Do we…know you?" Scott asked hesitantly, looking the two strangers up and down.

"Nope! Absolutely not," the boy stated confidently as his partner jogged over. "In fact, you've never seen us before in your entire lives!"

"I'm Marvel Girl," she said by way of introduction, making a small courtesy. Indicating to the boy, she added, "and this is my younger brother, Cable"

Through his gritted smile, he muttered in a singsong voice, "Eight minutes does _not_ make me _younger_…"

"Excuse him," Marvel Girl stated, discreetly stepping on Cable's foot. "He was _dropped_ as a child"

Betsy felt she didn't need her telepathy to tell the two were siblings. She and her twin brother Brian behaved nearly the same way. But suspicion was still luring so she tentatively loosened some of her mental shields which, in her state of health, was an action similar to releasing a breath after holding it for a couple of hours.

—_do they think they are, showing—contained major damage to the living room at—…—look so _freaking _familiar?—miscalculated. Will have to remember for next—…—pretty cute looking—_

Betsy stared at the strangers in disbelief as the X-Men began grilling them with questions. Either they weren't thinking _at all_ or they had some of the best mental shields she'd ever _seen_.

"If you wouldn't mind my asking," Professor Xavier started, wheeling himself to the front of the still attack-ready X-Men, "where did the two of you come from?"

"Yeah, and what exactly are you _doing _here?" Tessa added with a glare, arms crossed over her chest.

Marvel Girl didn't seemed irked by the question at all and pointed to the sentinel over her shoulder, "We followed McPinky here to destroy him"

"And we're from Muskoka," Cable answered, grinning.

Everyone turned to stare at Cable including his sister.

"In…Canada?" Laura asked, suspiciously.

"…yes?"

Wolverine crossed his arms over his chest, a gesture that when done by Logan, looked far more intimidating than it did when done by 5'6" Tessa. "Never seen or heard of you and I was in the area a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure you two would be hard to _miss_"

The twin's confidence faltered visibly and they glanced at each other. Betsy looked over to see a frustrated Jean and Emma focusing their complete concentration on the pair, probably trying to get through the same mental shields she'd come up against. Lorna was standing close to her left but wasn't taking her eyes off the decapitated sentinel head that nearly squashed her and was now staring at them with blank, lifeless eyes. She hadn't noticed Forge stumble onto the scene to stand near Tessa but had taken note that Laura was standing in front of Alex like a protector. Or a warden.

"Well we're young _fledgling_ superheroes," Cable said after a moment by way of explanation. "We've come to seek acceptance at Xavier's"

Now even _Betsy_ found herself scowling. It took neither a telepath nor a genius to read BS as obvious as that.

Alex Summers rolled his eyes and gesturing to the 'fledgling superheroes' with his good hand, said, "Oh c'mon! _You _guys don't even believe that!"

A tense moment passed with the X-Men staring down the super-twins. Finally, Marvel Girl groaned.

"Okay, _fine!_" she huffed, throwing her hands up and dropping her charade._ "_We're mutant teenage runaways from the future who went on a time-traveling joy ride and got _stuck_ here by accident"

She jerked a finger towards herself, her brother and the robot shell on the floor behind them and grudgingly reintroduced them. "I'm Rachel, he's Nathan. Pinky here is Nimrod, we're not totally sure how he hitched a ride. _Happy_?"

Her brother turned to her in utter disbelief. "_**Ray!**_"

Rachel spun to face her brother, still visibly upset. "Okay, I can forgive _'fledgling superheroes_' and the _'seeking acceptance'_ crap but _Muskoka, _Nate? _Really? _That's the _best_ you could come _up_ with?"

"How was _I_ supposed to know they'd know where that was?"

"Um, maybe because Wolverine is _Canadian?"_

"It didn't _sound _Canadian!"

"What does _'_Canadian' fraking _sound_ like, Nathan?"

Intrigued, Betsy interrupted their private war with a not-so-fake cough. She had a question to ask she could bet everyone in the room wanted answered. "So if you're from the _future, _how exactly did you get _here_?"

Sighing in clear defeat, Rachel turned back to the X-Men and explained, "Nate's arm has time travelling capabilities"

Her reply was met by more disbelieving glares. "We're not _complete_ idiots," Jean snapped, cranky and most likely still sleep deprived.

"No! _Seriously!_" Nathan insisted, holding up his mechanical arm for their inspection. To Betsy it looked like a sleeker, smoother, and more complete version of Forge's mechanical arm though it had metal bands like Colossus when he turned to steel. It ran all the way up to what she could see of his shoulder under a blue and red T-Shirt with a logo for "The Butt Monkey's"

"My boyfriend helped build it," Rachel informed them when she saw them appraising it.

"And her boyfriend helped _break_ it," Nathan added, smirking.

He seemed to have predicted his sister's reaction because she spun back to him instantly, upset again, and spat, "_Frankie_ did _no_ such thing!"

"_This,"_ he shot back, pulling out something that looked like a complicated, tricked-out toaster to Betsy from a compartment in his arm and shoving it in Rachel's face, "has '_Frankie'_ written _all over it!"_

"_**The enabler**__!_" Sage and Forge shouted at the same time, running forward to grab the contraption from Nathan who looked thoroughly surprised when Forge took it from his grip only to have Sage yank it back away from him with a deadly glare. Betsy hadn't even been aware of the humming noise produced by the contraption until Sage jammed her finger into a button and the humming stopped.

Nathan looked between a triumphant Rachel and the box that had just been taken from him. "_Okay_ then," he admitted sheepishly, rocking back on his heels, "Neeeeever mind…"

The Professor took point again though Betsy noted that he was the only one who still didn't look skeptical. "Well, we appreciate your…honesty," he said after a moment of searching for the right word.

"Indeed," Hank chimed, fixing the glasses on his face which carried the expression of excited curiosity. "Would you two care for something to drink as we discuss the whole…'from the future' part of your story?"

"I'll take a water, thank you," Rachel said politely as Xavier led the way into the kitchen and the gathered X-Men followed behind; Betsy had to give the still shell-shocked Lorna a small nudge before her feet started moving.

"Docta Peppaaa!" Nathan cheered. It took a moment before he noticed the stares he was getting.

"…what?"

Betsy smiled and then sighed which tickled her raw throat and started her coughing again. She found it both a comfort and annoyance that in whatever situation and in _whenever _future, boys were and would always be _boys_.

* * *

The first indication that something truly unusual was happening was when Roberto jogged into the kitchen through the outside door covered in sweat, interrupting the unfolding conversation between Rachel, Nathan, Scott, Jean, and the adults to grab a water bottle from the fridge.

Betsy glanced out from the cabinet she was searching for Benadryl. "Roberto?"

"One and only," he replied as he wrapped a kitchen towel around his neck and took a chug from his water bottle. Glancing at the wheelchair bound Scott and the cast that ran all the way from his ankle to his hip, he smirked and added, "Nice wheels, Professor _S"_

Scott scowled and replied, "Nice _brace_, Captain _Uncreative"_

"Brace? I'm not wearing a—YOW!" Roberto shouted as he barely dodged an optic blast. "Man! You almost took off my arm!"

"I know," Scott replied, his voice completely monotonous as he fixed his glasses back on his face, "Shame"

Betsy heard Emma snicker from her spot next to a silent Lorna on the window seat. Alex had attempted to sit on her other side to _'rest his arm on the armrest'_ but had been forcefully dragged out of the kitchen by Laura before he even touched the cushion to _'change the bandage on his hand'._

Amara and Jubilee sprinted in from the door leading into what was left of the living room, both looking as panicked as they were excited. "Oh my God, guys! Did you _see_ the living room?" Jubilee asked looking around the kitchen wildly to see who she was delivering her message to.

Amara turned to the meeting of teachers and senior students. "Jean! What _happened_?"

"A giant pink robot attacked," Jean replied off hand, "and it dropped off the wonder twins here." She indicating to Rachel and Nathan who were nursing an eight ounce bottle of water and a two liter bottle of Doctor Pepper respectively.

To Betsy's surprise, Amara crossed her arms and huffed indignantly. "I might be a princess, but I'm not_ gullible,_" she informed them before turning to Sage who stood beside Forge and was tinkering with the enabler using the back of a bottle opener. "Tessa, what happened?"

"What _she_ said," Tessa replied without looking up.

Then Tabitha stormed in through the same outer door Roberto had come in, grabbing a bag of flour under each of her arms. To Jubilee and Magma, she called, "What are you guys standing there for? C'mon! We've got work to do!" and, taking no mind of anyone else in the kitchen, she headed right back outside, whooping and shouting for Remy.

"What are you all _doing_ here?" Betsy finally asked aloud, getting down from her stepladder as Rogue side-stepped Tabitha, Jubilee, and Amara, and calmly walked in calmly, dropping her black messenger bag by the door. "What happened to school?"

"The school went into lockdown today so they let us out earlier," Rogue replied as she crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator.

"Why?" Forge asked, speaking up since Sage was hell-bent on ignoring him.

"Well, eyewitnesses are claiming a 'giant pink robot' thing was terrorizing downtown," Roberto told them, rolling his eyes disbelievingly as he opened the other door to head into the living room, "and they _claim _it was headed towards the—_Dios mío_! Is that _it?_"

"Whoah! They weren't _kidding_!" Rogue seconded, peering out over Roberto's shoulder. "How intimidating is a _pink_ robot?"

"I hear you, man," Nathan grumbled over his soda bottle. "You guys get to fight _Magneto_ and _Apocalypse_ and _we_ get to fight Tim Gunn's design of an Iron Man suit"

Rachel elbowed him hard in the ribs and soda came out his nose.

"Hey Professor!" Rahne called from the outside door as she dragged a shy young Native American girl by the wrist. "You remember Dani, right? She's gonna be helping me with something today so don't think she's a mirage thingie if you see her around, okay? Thanks! Bye!" Before the Professor could reply, Rahne pulled the Dani girl past the kitchen opening and into the backyard with her. In the same direction Tabitha, Jubilee and Magma went. Betsy was growing concerned.

"Hey, guys?" Jamie asked as he peeked into the kitchen from the living room door as Roberto squeezed, "Did you know there was a giant pink robot in our living room?"

There were mutters and mumbles of 'yes' and 'no kidding, Maddrox'

"Just making sure," he insisted. He then pulled out a notepad and asked as casually as he could, "By the way, does anyone know anything that rhymes with _ignition_?"

"_Ambition," _Emma supplied.

"_Recognition_," Forge mumbled.

"_Division," _Jean spat, not looking at Jamie.

"_Imposition," _Rachel said, still thumping her coughing brother on the back.

"_Vision," _Xavier offered.

"Wow! Those are great! Thanks!"

"Um, _why_ do you want to know?" Scott asked as he wheeled himself around and Jamie scribbled the words down.

"Oh. No reason. Honest curiosity," Jamie replied, sauntering out the door with a cheesy fake grin on his face.

Tessa finally decided to give up on her tinkering with the enabler and sighed, dropping the bottle opener in the sink and grabbing Forge by the upper arm. "Come on, genius, we have to neutralize this thing and figure out what that _other_ box thing of yours does"

As Tessa lightly pulled him to the door Betsy heard him ask, "Have I told you lately how _beautiful_ your eyeslook when you tell me how much you _love_ me?"

The computer-brain mutant glared back at him even as she was trying to hide a smile. "Nice try, _Casanova_. You're not getting off _that_ easy…"

No sooner had Tessa and Forge stepped out that Sam Guthrie calmly trotted in and casually took an open seat, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl in the center of the table. He paid neither the future mutants nor the pink robot any attention.

Rogue stopped already halfway out the backyard door to find Remy. "Uh, aren't you going to go off and work on whatever the hell all you New Mutants are working on?"

"Nope," he said simply, grinning like a Cheshire cat with a mouth full of apple. "I finished _mine_ in school"

"Okay," Betsy said at last, leaning on the counter, "What on _earth_ are you guys _doing?_ Because you're killing me here with—" She was interrupted by Kurt's signature '_bamf!_' as he and Kitty teleported into the room. Lorna screamed briefly and simultaneously jumped in surprise. All eyes turned to stare at her, even Kitty and Kurt who gave her weird looks.

"A little _high_ _strung_, are we?" Logan asked the newest mutant with a smirk. Lorna had clamped her hands over her mouth and was blushing furiously at her own outburst.

"Please don't scream like that in public," Emma added as Kurt and Kitty sidestepped over to Betsy's position against the counter while the attention was still on Lorna.

"So?" Kurt asked in a whisper, "Are they talking to each other now?"

"Um…" she hadn't really been checking up on Scott and Jean between Lorna's tour and saving her hide against the sentinel attack. Betsy glanced over to where Scott, Jean, Logan, Hank, and the Professor were discussing things with their time-traveling guests.

"If it wasn't your boyfriend's kooky _inventing_," Nathan was saying as he inspected his mechanical arm, "then it was probably myex_-_girlfriend's ridiculously accurate sharpshooting messing up the mechanisms in my arm"

Rachel put down her water bottle and turned to her brother, curious. "When did you break up with Neena?"

He rolled his eyes. "Um, when I woke up this morning in a _sewer, _with _you_, and _him," _he pointed in the general direction of Nimrod,_ "_stuck _twenty five years _in the past_!_"

Hank, ever the scientist, got up to push the door open and inspect the robot shell. "We should probably get rid of its remains," he advised, fixing his glasses to squint, "just in case it blows up or rebuilds or…something"

Jean got to her feet determinedly. "I'm on it, Dr. McCoy"

Betsy watched her brush past Logan and the Professor easily but when she could have just as easily passed Scott, she saw that Jean telekinetically bumped his wheelchair so that his cast collided forcefully with the table's leg. The pain that shot through Scott's entire body was so strong that Betsy's telepathy picked up on some of it without even trying. Kurt and Kitty, who weren't even telepathic, winced.

For his part Scott clutched at his wounded leg and grit his teeth as Jean passed to the living room. After she was gone he finally hissed a heavy, "_**OW**__"_

"…All _right_ then, Kurt," Kitty declared, turning back to her partner in crime. "Plan B it is!"

"So wait, what does that mean to—" Betsy began asking just as the two grinned at each other, grabbed hands, and teleported back out. Taking the full blunt of the brimstone smoke, Betsy couldn't help but sneeze. _Twice_.

—_can start on the east wing and then move to—know his New York extension is here _some—_ up the glass, so a drew a new face and I—correctly, record for fastest land mammal was the cheetah—_ACHOO!—_…_—_wish those two would just _kiss_ and _make up_ already—really _is _a little tacky but it reminds me of—…—has to be what going _insane_ feels like—_

The last thought was clearly Lorna's who was leaning against the window frame looking miserable, her eyes closed as Emma spoke to her from her other side. Betsy waved off the 'bless you's of the other X-Men and headed over. Lorna had clearly stated aloud something along the lines of what she was thinking and Emma had responded by regaling her with what was shaping up to be a lengthy tale.

"Hey, you alright?" she asked gingerly as she drew up a chair to sit in front of Lorna.

"Ms. Dane is just a little shell-shocked is all," Emma informed Betsy calmly, patting Lorna on the shoulder. She continued to Betsy, "I was just telling her about my first experience with this sort of thing back at the Massachusetts Academy. We had these sorts of afternoon apocalypses on our _slower_ days"

Betsy tilted her head in curiosity. "Massachusetts Academy?" She'd never heard mention of such a place before.

Emma rolled her eyes at Betsy just as Lorna groaned tiredly and opened hers. "Xavier doesn't hold the _monopoly_ on teaching mutants, Elizabeth." She said it as if it were obvious.

It was news to Betsy. And it slightly annoyed her that she hadn't thought of it before. "Wait, so I _didn't_ have to move to an entirely different continent to get help with my powers?" she asked.

"Well that depends entirely on your standards of quality," Emma replied, "and _scenery_, of course," she added, turning her body and leaning back across the seat. She dropped her head back and tucked her feet behind Lorna to catch some sun. A ray caught the red gemstone on her necklace and threw glare into Betsy's eyes.

Bobby Drake passes by the outside of the window then and noticed Betsy, Emma and Lorna sitting in the window seat. Betsy nudged Lorna to turn around as Bobby smiled and waved at them. A smile briefly came to Lorna face as she waved back shyly but it didn't last long. Amara came swiftly and intercepted her boyfriend, yelling something at him and pulling him out of view of the girls with a ticked off expression as he argued back.

Lorna's hand fell limply to her side and she sighed heavily. Turning back to Betsy, she asked with a hopeful half-smile, "Geez, am I the _only _bachelorette in this whole place?"

Emma sighed and, without raising her head, lifted one of her hands resolutely and peeked an eye open give Betsy a meaningful look. It took Betsy a few seconds to realize what was being implied before it clicked and she raised her hand as well. Though she tried her hardest not to think about it too much, Betsy was indeed one of the few (if not three) X-Men bachelorettes. No one had really caught her attention all that much since she'd been in the States even though it had only been a week.

Sure Scott and Remy and Lance were cute (and super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot if you looked at them the right way) but they just seemed to fit so well with Jean and Rogue and Kitty that there wasn't really any thought behind pursuing any of them. And being holed up in the mansion didn't really offer much opportunity for meeting any _non_-mutant males. She sighed and wished she hadn't thought about it.

"Well that makes me feel a _little_ better," Lorna conceded, sitting up a little taller and crossing her legs.

"That makes _one_ of us," Emma sighed as she pushed off the seat and went to go join the adult conversation with the new arrivals. Betsy was watching her cross the room when Kitty phased through the wall just beside the door, pulling a grumbling Lance behind her. He finished giving Kitty an irate look as he plopped down in Jean's now vacant seat beside Scott just before Emma could. Kitty wordlessly gave him a kiss on the cheek as Emma scowled and made an '_I'm watching you'_ motion towards Kitty, which the younger mutant reciprocated. Briefly smirking in triumph, she skipped over to Betsy and Lorna as Emma turned to head out of the kitchen.

"Well!" Kitty announced cheerfully as she came upon the two of them, "I believe we have a tour to finish, am I right?"

Lorna scratched her head, looking less enthusiastic than she had that morning. "Well, um…"

But Kitty's mood was not to be dampened. "Oh, come on!" she insisted eagerly, grabbing Lorna's hand and lightly pulling her to her feet. "I'm sure Betsy hasn't shown you our super cool Cerebro supercomputer, or the even cooler Blackbird Jet hanger, or the wicked awesome Danger Room in action, has she?"

Lorna shrugged and glanced over at Betsy from under Kitty's reassuring arm and Betsy realized Lorna was asking for her permission. Feeling oddly maternal, the other mutant rose to her feet as well, ready to insist. "Kitty, you really don't have to—"

"Don't _worry_, Bets," Kitty assured her with a wink, "I _got _this. You took care of the JOTT issue, I'll cover the tour"

"'Jott'?" Betsy wondered aloud as Kitty led Lorna away, asking, "So, you a Jonas Brothers fan?"

If Betsy were in any other state of health, she might have argued that the job was given to her and as an X-Man (X-Woman?) she was going to stay faithful to the Professor's orders. But, as the song went, she was so sick and tired of being sick and tired that she didn't even put up a fight and headed for the door.

She glanced once more around the kitchen at the time-displaced superheroes and the pink robot shell in the living room Jean was violently atomizing before admitting defeat and deciding that at the very least if the mansion exploded while she took a nap, she wouldn't be around to tell them all she told them so.

**End Part Three**

* * *

Oh, Betsy. If you only knew what your evening had in store for you… ^._.^

A/N: 'Super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot' is a quote referencing to 'A Very Potter Musical' which everyone on Earth should watch. Betsy being a Harry Potter fan is of my own invention as I figured it would be a fun twist to her teen character like making Lorna a surfer or making Sage and Forge an item. _**Rose**_ _**Gilmore**_ pointed out that I may hold the honor of having inventing that couple, btw. As such, I shall call it…_SARGE_! _**Koolkame **_approves :D

_NEXT TIME:  
_"_He sounded like whatever he was up against was twice as worse as Apocalypse. I asked if it was _another_ threat to the human race they needed me for and—"_

"_We seem to have a magnetic attraction to those," Betsy interrupted, musing that a pissed off Jean Grey could very well fall into the category of 'a threat to the human race'._

And you get a double sample for being patient:

"_What did the gem do to _you_?"_

"_Nothing, my dear," Emma replied suavely. "_My_ mutant power is perfect and flawless and therefore, in need of no improvement"_


End file.
